Where the hell to start with this one then?
Well it is a lot different than anything heard since the band were reborn and got back together as Septicflesh, in fact it feels completely wrong calling them that for this reissue of their first album and EP combined. You can forget all about the modern trimmings of what they are now and what they delivered with their excellent 2011 album ‘The Great Mass.’ There are no orchestras here. There are none of those clean roof-raising vocals. Things are mainly left to the gruff Spartan commanding vocals of Spiros Antoniou along with, brother Christos and Sotiris Vayenes frantic strumming and a an arcane and mystical sounding atmosphere provided by keyboards which tinge everything in a somewhat magical air.
Originally released by Holy Records way back in 1994 the album, as with most of their early material, has seemed to command quite high prices in the past so it is nice to see this re-mastered reissue easily available again. Looking into things a bit further I have realised that this was actually reissued with the bonus tracks in 2002 but as it is new to me, I am not complaining at getting the download to review.
The title track sees that classic Greek sounding guitar sound and garbled vocals quickly snapping at its heels. Even re-mastered it takes a while to wrap your head around and get clearer definition. As we progress one thing that is evident is that there are plenty of ideas here and each and every song seems to have something to identify it. The jagged riffing is a constant as is the guttural vocal attack which sounds more like a performance than anything else. It is the odd accompanying things that I found myself drawn to such as the tubular bell sounding percussive parts of ‘Return To Carthage’ ‘Crescent Moon’ struck a chord too and that chord was very much down to what sounds like a real influence of Italian horror movies, basically reminding me a lot of Fulci ala Frizzi. The rich guitar intro of ‘The Underwater Garden’ cries out the word ‘classic’ yet again. It is one of those once heard never forgotten parts of a song that instantly reminded me of obviously hearing it years ago. Although wearing its heritage firmly on its sleeve the grim melodic death metal sound is at times comparable to what we had going on here at the time with the likes of Anathema and Paradise Lost but it is only fleetingly as this sounds much more alien. Obviously if you cast comparisons to the likes of Rotting Christ who had just sealed their own ‘Mighty Contract’ you can here similarities but with the stunning instrumental conclusion of the album Mythos (Part 1 Elegy) they take things to a completely other level. I have to say this blew me away having never heard it, reminding me a bit of something I would expect to hear on an epic historical film such as Caligula (although a Greek equivalent if such a thing exists). It also illustrates the way Septic Flesh were to evolve in directions far beyond a mere traditional sounding band.
The four track Temple Of The Lost Race EP is a nice addition to this no doubt leaving not a spare bit of space on the actual disc to fill up and complimenting the debut album well. This was originally released way back in 1991 (yep 22 years ago) on the somewhat lost in translation entitled Black Power label. Erebus opens in a doom- death laden manner before upping the ante and galloping off. As things progress through into ‘Another Reality’ there is a feel of experimentation with the bass sound and although this is in essence a more primitive death laden assault to the material to come you can easily see that this is a band finding their feet and staking their claim on what is to come next. Of course it would be another three years before that appeared.
All in all this is pretty much an essential piece of Greek blackness and a well timed one too for anyone eagerly awaiting the next Rotting Christ opus in March. I am hoping the label continues and re-issues the rest of the Septic Flesh material as having pretty much missed out on them I would certainly like to hear exactly how they progressed.
(7/10 Pete Woods)
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